The present invention relates to apparatus for collecting webs of photographic paper or the like. More particularly, the invention relates to improvements in apparatus for winding or convoluting webs of flexible sheet material on a rotary collecting member so that a convoluted web forms a roll whose convolutions surround the periphery of the collecting member.
It is already known to place the leader of a flexible web adjacent to or to introduce the leader into a rotary collecting member and to thereupon set the collecting member in rotary motion so that the web is convoluted onto the collecting member. If the leader is not fixedly connected with the collecting member, the latter is likely to rotate relative to the leader and is thus incapable of convoluting or winding the web. Positive attachment of the leader to the collecting member is not always possible, for example, when the collecting member is confined in a magazine or another container. It was therefore proposed to feed the web toward the collecting member at the exact peripheral speed of that portion of the rotating member which collects or convolutes the web. Such collecting apparatus are satisfactory; however, the cost of mechanisms which insure proper synchronization between the forward movement of the web and the angular movement of the collecting member is very high and, moreover, such mechanisms occupy much room in or in the region of a photographic copying machine.
The commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 3,802,646 to Nagel et al. discloses a modified apparatus wherein the leader of the web is caused to pass through a pivotable guide and enters a transverse slot which is machined into the core of a rotary web collecting member. The core must be moved to a predetermined angular position with respect to the guide to thus insure that the leader will automatically enter the inlet of the slot. The patented apparatus further comprises an apertured sleeve which can be slipped onto the core only when the inlet of the slot in the core registers with an opening of the sleeve. The patented apparatus is also quite expensive because it comprises a substantial number of driven and other parts.